460 SLi or just a 480?

Palit hasn't got the heatsing on VRMs for sure, I don't know if Gainward has. Let's hope so - it should give you better OC results.

 

460 SLI vs 480 question for myself I've decided as 460 SLI!

I've bought 2 Gigabyte GTX 460 1GBs last week, they are working like a charm!
Silent, chill, with a mild overclock (800Mhz) they are almost as fast as 2x HD5870 in crossfire, an dof course are faster than any GTX 480 and even 2x 470 in SLI!

If I didn't want to upgrade so much, I would have waited for a "full" GF104 card, but anyway I am very happy with my choice!

 

@ CoreyPL


I feel you this time bro, agree with most anything you said in the last post..and as you said we pritty much have come to the same conclusion just worded it abit diffrently

Really need something new to replace my 4870x2 atm, it started to artifact alot in games the last few days, have to underclock it now :<

Think I have to RMA it hope the guarantee aint up yet hehe, get myself a 5870 and then ebay that and get 2x 465s MSI twin frozr and sli those or 480 + custom air cooling.

We'll see

 

BeLGaRaTh_67 you need to change your power supply to 1000w + to run those cards you bought and the 480 is nasty hot... this why i would not buy one or even 2 and believe me im a NV fanboy. I was close to making the switch to ATi 5870 or what ever thay call them HD cards, but I just like NV too much and there for superior drivers / support.

So I waited and waited until now and bought x2 460's on day of release,I have had these gainward cards for 4+ weeks and im over the moon with the "PRICE v PERFORMANCE" value 2 cards for the price of a single 480 or ati equivalent... that's what you gotta bear unless money is no object !

As for SLi issues with games its its minimual when compared with the benefits and joy of SLi gaming... NV driver team are always making improvements with there beta's and wqrl drivers adding SLi support to new and upcoming games all the time "Ati cant hold a candle to that in c/fire" tho they are make up ground never the less.

I can only speak about my experience with x2 GTX460's I have had no problems what so ever & I have had 1st class support from Gainward concerning the whole vrm feesago. Their tech support team in Germany where fantastic addressing the issues I raised, as I was about to RMA the cards... but im glad I didn't and they talked me through the whole pre launch thing with cards needing vrm's and the launch cards not needing vrm's and TBH I have not had a single flaw with the "Gainward GLH edition cards" regarding fan noise or heat.

The only thing im finding is that I might need to upgrade my cpu in the future as games like BC2 rely a lot more on cpu but this is a EA thing.

 

I was under the impression that 850w would be more than enough, especially using the calculators on some of the manufacturers sites. It may be too late to cancel the order now as they were placing it on Friday for me. Can anyone else advise that the 850w PSU will not be sufficient? I'm a bit concerned now

 

Don't worry, 850W for SLI GTX460 is more than enough. Those cards need 320W in full stress, maybe up to 400W when OC'ed, and about 50W in idle. I think Parabellum Uk was talking about GTX480 in SLI, which coupled with fast CPU, memory etc. would push the PSU close to the limit (concerning 12V rail). But you are perfectly fine with 850W for GTX460 SLI. Antec makes very good quality PSUs so you can be sure that they will be able to give advertised power.
1000W PSU for your config would be a total overkill, especially in idle, when efficiency for low power output is poor - you would lose power. PSU has its best efficiency at 50-75%, and good efficiency starts from around 25% of total power output. Your rig should draw around 100-150W in idle, and up to 600W, maybe 650W tops when CPU and both GPUs are highly OC'ed and at full stress (that almost never happens outside the benchmarks). So 850W is perfect choice. Even 750W would suffice.

@Sneakers

Too bad about your card man. You should hold off a little with purchase as ATI confirmed launch date for Southern Islands GPU family (6000 series) for November - so 2.5 months from now. This will drive both 5000 series cards and probably NVIDIA card prices down. Maybe top ATI chip be faster than GTX465 in SLI?

Check that:
http://www.guru3d.com/news/ati-southern-islands-launches-in-october/

Other than that I just OC'ed my Gigabyte to 900/1800/2000 (core/shader/mem) with overvolt. Fully stable in 3D Mark and other game benchmarks (RE5, SF4). GPU points went from 13000 (standard for slightly factory OC'ed Gigabyte) to 16200 - 25% increase. Max temp was 74C, fan at 65% (starting to hear it, but still very silent), ambient 28C (hot in here today). Very good result from a card for that price Of course I won't keep it at 900MHz 24/7 as I rarely game now and don't need that power all the time. I primarily swapped the card from HD4890 for CUDA, as some of the apps I use got optimization for it.

 

Thanks again Corey, glad I don't have to call them and make another change I'm sure they are sick of me by now HeHe

 

2BeLGaRaTh_67

2 GTX 460 in SLI is a wonder, but I think, that with your current CPU (assuming, that you have E8400@3Ghz) it might become a bottleneck...
I have i7-920 and at stock speed (2.6 Ghz) it's definitely a bottleneck for a SLI setup of 2x GTX 460... so I think, I might just warn you.

 

@SirDremor, I currently have the E8400, but in my first post I mentioned I am building a complete new system, the processor I am going with is i7 930 so it should be fine

 

@BeLGaRaTh_67
Oh, sorry, missed that one. i7-930 with a mild overclock will really be enough =)

Good luck then! Building a new system is always SO exciting! =)

 

Don't worry - customer is always right They should be happy that you are buying locally and not online - making them money

 

By the time GTX460 SLI becomes "useless"....Dx11 games will be distant memories. 8800GT SLI is still viable...and that's 3 generations back.

 

This> SLI is not supported by all games

 

My Asus GTX 460s just arrived in the mail. First impressions are. Mind = Blown. I just ran a benchmark to compare to my old 285s. They make no audible noise over my case fans. At stock clocks they are slightly faster than the 285s and they didn't even get to 55 degrees C, where as my 285s would hit 85 degrees C not long after the bench started and would also sound like jet engines.

Just installed afterburner. On their standard voltage of 1.012 they can run at 800/1600/2000 and in Kombustor they max out at 71 degrees C

 

Nice Try to lower the voltage. My Gigabyte can run 800/1600/2000 on 0.95v (standard for GTX460). If your cards will be stable with that voltage it should shave off few C from GPU temps and lower power consumption.

 

This might help people pick a model/brand of the 460 gtx, excellent reviews from Tweaktown.

http://www.tweaktown.com/cat/video_cards/index.html

I'm begining to swing towards a 460 myself now hehe

 

Sli

I got my second Gigabyte GTX460 installed last night. Thank goodness I also ordered a Corsair 850W PSU as my OCZ 700W would not even power up the computer after adding the second card.

Anyway, everything works great in my limited time to test everything. Bad Company 2 runs so smooth it is like a new game. Benchmarks way up in GTA IV, World in Conflict, etc.

SLI has come a long way since my 7950GX2 days.

 

i say do what i should have did and go Tri 470's

 

I say 2 460s for now...then get a 485 when it comes out!

 

Got my system today, erm yesterday its 5am holy sh*t!! I am completely mind blown by these babies in my new rig. It's taken a few hours to get everything the way I want things again, but just ran a few tests, they were all incredible. Best £1,400 I ever spent

There were a few issues with the CPU fan fitting, the Noctua is one huge MoFo, the side fan on the InWin Ironclad had to be moved in order to close the side panel on the case. But all was worth it in the end, getting 7.8 WEI and will run a few other benchmarks later on, need some sleep ATM